Arrgghh! NAFTA is NOT a Treaty
Monday, February 02, 2009
By Jim Capo
The New American.com
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has never been given legal treaty status in the United States. In 1993, it was submitted and passed in the U.S. Senate, on a 61-38 vote, as a simple agreement. There was and has never been the 2/3rds majority vote required to obtain legitimate treaty status as per the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately, our agreement partners Mexico and Canada and a cast of globalist legal scholars the world over insist on calling NAFTA a treaty, thus promoting it to a higher legally binding status in the U.S. than it actually has.
The latest outrage in misrepresenting what the U.S. signed up for in NAFTA came last week Thursday from Canada's Federal Industry Minister, Tony Clement. Speaking on Canadian national television regarding the current $850 billion dollar stimulus package in the US Congress, which includes buy American (U.S.) provisions, Mr. Clement stated, "
The U.S. Congress is a place where you get manifestations of protectionist pressures, there's no doubt about that...At the same time, the United States has treaty obligations that they've signed onto, NAFTA is one, the World Trade Organization is another, and we expect the United States to live up to its treaty obligations of open and fair trade.
This would be a good quote to reference when you write to your U.S. Senator to demand they issue a statement confirming that NAFTA is not a treaty as far as the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Constitution is concerned. This is the same letter where you can further ask to have your Senator support the repeal of NAFTA on the grounds that it was sold to the American public as something, with the experience of history, we can now see it was clearly not - an agreement taking down barriers to true (unregulated by government) free trade among people.
Jim Capo is a 1981 engineering graduate of the University of Michigan. After graduation, he worked for the chemical and plastics firm Celanese Corporation.
Having spent his business career in both manufacturing and international trade, in the fall of 2006, Mr. Capo accepted the additional title of National Spokesman on Trade Policy for the John Birch Society.
Residing in Greensboro, North Carolina, Mr. Capo has been married to his wife Machiko (Ma'-chee-ko) for 20 years. He is a proud father of two teenage sons, Alex and Max.
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